Tuesday, June 7, 2011

One step at a time

In most projects, once the stock is milled I just do some quick dimensioning and I'm off to the races on the joinery. However, in this stepped front chest the sides need to be laid out and carefully cut. I had quite a few choices of tools and techniques for this project, and ultimately decided on the table saw. In fact, this is probably one of the few steps of this project you will see any real power tool action. Because of the "graduated" nature of the case, most of the joinery will actually be faster and easier to cut by hand. I have a feeling this project is going to be a great example of where hand tools may actually be faster than power tools for the majority of the joinery. Well here's episode two - I have to go start honing my chisels and sharpening my dovetail saw!

The goose neck chisel comes in really handy any time you're working in a tight spot where a standard bench chisel just won't work. In reality, a crank-necked chisel would have been the ideal solution in this situation, but the only one I have is 1/4" (I use it to clean up slots to house box bottoms). A crank-neck gives you a long flat surface to register the chisel back on, while raising just the handle up and out of the way. The biggest problem with the goose neck is that it has to be sharpened free-hand.